This is not on cricket or Hindi movies – far more fundamental!
As usual, the other day, I was getting back home after a busy day. The office bus leaves the premises at 6.45 p.m. and usually I reach home by 8.15. (It is actually a 45 minute ride!) That day, I reached home at 10.15 p.m. – a good four hours. The reason for the delay – the entire 3 km stretch of the Jogeshwari link road, facing the Powai lake was blocked and we took 2 hours to cross that stretch! The story didn’t end there – the next day too we reached home past 10 p.m. I was sharing this with a US-based friend. He said, “You’re not serious. It’s Mumbai and not a Jhumritalaiya!” I shrugged helplessly – it didn’t matter as he couldn’t see me.
I came back home and decided, “Mumbai was dying and that was irreversible.”
Why did I feel so strongly?
Because Mumbai has become a filthy city. I dare you to walk 100 meters at a stretch and not find a garbage dump and an open gutter. That this city has millions of them unattended to is a matter of great concern. Outside my office, after a wet day, I saw the workers going into the gutter and removed a big pile of garbage, which had evidently choked the gutter. To this day, the removed garbage still lies unattended to. That the city’s streets were swept thirty years back is an old grandmother’s tale.
Because Mumbai has become a squatter’s city. I dare you walk 50 meters at a stretch and not find a squatter. That 50% percent of the city lie in slums bewilders me! How could things come to a pass? First the immigrants from Bangladesh, and then from the North began to squat on any available land with the help of thekedaars who promised them and got them ration cards in exchange of their support during elections. Somebody told me, “The Government is obliged to provide them housing.” “Yes, but not at any cost.” A look at these areas will tell you how the backwardness of the North Indian states, coupled with lawlessness is rampant in most of these slum colonies. The city fathers and members of the civil society must come together and put 1985 as a cut-off date and free the land from the slum dwellers. I know there will be a clamour to show humanitarian concern. My point is that when I go to another land in search of job, do I squat? Don’t I follow the law of the land? Why are these people lionised? Government, don’t stop anybody from coming here. Whoever comes here must follow the law of the land.
Because the city is overburdened and waiting to explode, on the brink. You ask anybody who has seen it in the last 25 years or so (that includes me), they will tell you that the city can only manage 1985-level population. Perhaps Mumbai of 1985 with infrastructure of 2008 is the fix. What do you to the five-six million who have come since then? Allow them a breather to regularize and then...... Somebody told me that the city will miss its vegetable vendors, auto rickshaws, milk vendors, and presswalas. I say that that is the best thing that can happen to the city. 1 BEST bus can hold as many people as 40 rickshaws – this means fewer vehicles on the road! As such, BEST buses run on CNG – less polluting! Anyways, out-of-work rickshawwallas can be absorbed by BEST, if they fit the bill! The milk and vegetable trade can only get better organized. By the way, the attack on slums is not an attack on any community. That it turns out to be one is thanks to our rabble-rousing politicians.
Because there is no ownership in the city. Look at the state of the roads, you will see why. Roads are a mirror to an administration. I travel everyday from Thane to Andheri, travelling through Jogeshwari Link Road, Saki Vihar Road, and then finally Andheri-Kurla Road. The Powai stretch from IIT to L&T is probably the worst stretch in the world, save the Baramulla road in J&K (that’s to do with nature, stupid) – here it is pure inaction and bad project management. It should have taken 18 months to build the stretch – I saw the first pillar being erected in 2000 and eight years on we are still a year away from completion). It’s a shame that Mumbai deserves such apathy! Go further ahead and enter the Saki Vihar Road – it’s a nice stretch with footpaths. What you see is that vegetable vendors and other squatters have taken over the footpaths and people are walking on the roads. It’s not the only road in the city in such a state. Here governance is the issue.
Because Andheri-Kurla Road offers a unique insight on how the city is run. The road was widened two years back – it should have solved the traffic chaos. What you will see on the nicely constructed footpath are wires and cables of different agencies. I fear what if there is a short circuit somewhere. Stop dreaming, where’s your spirit of Mumbai?
Because the rains on July 26, 2005 and also the train blasts on July 11, 2006 offered a wonderful opportunity for the city guardians to look at the problems and take radical steps. That barring the token step of Mithi river project, there is little action. The talk of Mumbai to Shanghai is plain “empty talk and no action.” A metro here and a link road is just more antibiotic treatment! The citizens need a better quality of life. Otherwise there is going to be a migration of sorts – the educated middle class leaving the city. As such, Mumbai missed the IT boom – a real shame and more such misses are likely to happen. Increasingly, there is a chorus that in a few years time, there will be nothing more to Mumbai other than the film industry and the stock exchange. There is no new industrial activity happening, much like the other great decaying city, Kolkata. In fact, Mumbai today reminds me of the Kolkata of the seventies! Is it coincidence that Kolkata of the seventies faced power cuts and that Mumbai is beginning to experience that!
Because I am reminded of a scene from the Amitabh classic, Deewar. Amitabh’s girlfriend offers condolences on hearing about his father’s death. He says,”Mera baap toh bees saal pehle mar gaya. Aaj toh sirf use chitah di gayee.”
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